


Humble Pie is a dish best served raw

by Luceval



Category: RWBY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28370178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luceval/pseuds/Luceval
Summary: The Battle for Atlas is over, and the team is moving on to Vacuo. They're all recovering from something or another, but none more than Qrow and his loss of his favorite Lucky Charm. The kids are worried about him, and just as they're discussing it, who shows up, but (not-so) good ol' Cardin Winchester! The kids get a little revenge, Qrow gets some fluffy feel goods (because our favorite bird boy has been through enough gdi!), and Oscar learns even more about his new family.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Humble Pie is a dish best served raw

**Author's Note:**

> A/N:  
> This is my first fanfic, let me preface everything with that. I came up with the idea for this story while my bestie and I were venting our feels after S7E12. We were both so upset at how it ended, almost inconsolably so. I don’t even remember how, but our conversation turned to Cardin (whom we both hate). The discussion that followed with us just ripping at him is what inspired this story. I needed an outlet to express my feelings in any way, and creating a follow up to season 7, and now 8, combined with taking it out with a little innocent revenge on Cardin was how I decided I should do it. I do like sticking to canon as much as possible, but as I have only watched the animated series though, and have not read the comics or stories, if there’s anything wrong with the canon as far as that goes, I apologize in advance. I like sticking to canon, but it’s not an unbendable personal rule. 
> 
> Anyway, just a quick clarifying note before you start the story, I’ve decided to call the group (Qrow, RWBY, JNR, Oscar, and Penny) Team MRDR. They’re a murder of crows! And Qrow is team dad, and nobody can convince me otherwise. So if I refer to MRDR I’m talking about all of them (toward the end, Qrow is his own separate person for the sake of simplicity, but it's his team, so still counts even if I'm only referring to the kids), JNOR will be JNR+Oscar, and all the other team names will be the same as the cannon. Italics are them thinking things, not actually saying them. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you like it! (^.^)

Team MRDR has been through a lot, a lot more than most. Ren and Nora lost their homes as children, JNR lost Pyrrha, Yang lost her arm, RWBY was temporarily separated before reuniting at Haven Academy, Oscar’s entire life was uprooted and redirected thanks to a pair of gods making a guy reincarnate for an undetermined amount of time and it just happened to be his body that he was meant to reincarnate into this time (albeit, as far as everybody else but Oscar knew, he’s been gone for a while, ever since they learned everything from Jinn), Penny is a one-of-a-kind cyborg with an aura and maiden powers whose system was hacked and left her semi-traumatized, and Qrow, well, Qrow has never had the best string of luck, to put it lightly. They’ve made precious friends along the way, separated from some, lost others, and been betrayed by the rest. Needless to say, they deserved a nice long break. A vacation or something. But they couldn’t do that. They needed to move on to the next place, to Vacuo. They needed to protect the two relics they currently had, even if the lamp was virtually useless after Hazel used the last question while Oscar and the lamp were held prisoner by Salem, and find the Summer maiden as soon as possible. She was their last hope before heading back to Beacon to find the last relic, since the current Fall maiden, Cinder, was evil, the Winter maiden, Penny, was still learning to control her maiden powers, and the Spring maiden, Raven, was in the wind (not that they’d be able to count on her anyway according to Qrow and Yang). Leaving Atlas, while the last thing they wanted to do right now, was the best course of action, and they all knew it. All of them were injured and exhausted from the intense battle to protect Atlas and Mantle from the grimm and from General Ironwood. Emotionally they were stretched as thin as could be, but none more so than Qrow after the betrayal and loss of Clover thanks to Ironwood’s arrest order and implementation of martial law. Sure, he’d be spared most physical damage thanks to being locked in a cell for the majority of the battle, but he’d gladly have taken that over the emotional beating he was inflicting on himself since that day. However, despite all the chaos and destruction that surrounded them, MRDR was still somehow in one piece, all still alive, still standing, and closer than ever before. 

They decided to go back the way they came, going to Mistral and making their way along the coast of Anima before catching an airship back to Vale and making their way to and Shade Academy in Vacuo, where Professor Theodore protected the next relic. None of them had even considered the shorter route through Vytal, seeing as how the place had been crawling with Grimm since the festival. So, they move on to the next place, healing as they travel, taking stock and being grateful that at least none of them died and that the 2 relics they have are safe. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winter and Whitley are in Atlas rebuilding it together with the people of Mantle since the staff is no longer there separating the two groups, so cooperation and understanding will be necessary to make their new society a success, stronger than before. With Jacques in prison for his treachery, Whitley has taken over the Schnee Dust Company, and has taken a page out of his sisters’ books, drastically changing company policies to prevent further worker neglect, especially for the faunus, and even donating dust to help with relief and rebuilding efforts. With all three Schnee siblings having effectively made up, and with Whitley brought into the loop of what’s going on in the world, he’s decided that restarting the Amity project and rebuilding was more important than making a profit by taking advantage of the desperate people of Atlas/Mantle. Robyn, also having been “released” from prison, had secured the cooperation of Mantle, helping the people to drop their suspicions of the SDC and smooth out rebuilding efforts even more. Knowing all of this, and carrying the hope that their eventual return to Atlas would be a happier one, Team MRDR was able to leave and move on. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~* Approximately one month after leaving Atlas *~  
“Wow Weiss, I’m impressed with how accustomed to camping you’ve gotten recently. Not that you’ve had much of a choice since we haven’t passed any towns lately. Haha!” Yang teased, snuggling up to Blake as Weiss returned from her turn of fetching firewood. “Hey, I might never have camped before now, but I am capable, you know…” Weiss retorted, embarrassed that she had to be taught everything only a few days before. “I’m not some delicate little princess…,” she whispered more to herself than anyone else. The rest of the group burst into laughter, which only made Weiss blush even harder before she settled in next to Ruby. 

“Don’t let them get to you Princess, they’re only teasing because they’re proud of you,” said Qrow from his shadowed spot just slightly away from the camp, hands secretly clutching something precious. While his instincts told him to stay as far away from the kids as possible because of his semblance, he also didn’t want to be too far away in case of a Grimm attack. Plus, he knew the kids would never allow him to be alone, so he settled for their maximum acceptable distance where he was still within eyesight, but not close enough for them to see him caressing the familiar clover pin he’d managed to keep on him even after everything. They had learned about what happened, but they didn’t know he’d kept the pin, and he wanted to keep it that way. He’d somehow managed to stay sober despite it all, so they kept their obvious fussing to a minimum, but if they knew... The last thing he needed was those kids hovering over him even more than they already were. “Clover wouldn’t like it if I backslid on account of him,” was his one comment on the subject when they’d caught him glancing at a bar when they passed through a town a while back, and it was enough for them to at least stop openly worrying. He sighed and replaced the pin in the inner chest pocket of his vest, the place previously occupied by his flask. It was the place closest to his heart, and he’d be damned if he put it anywhere else. As Qrow got up, he heard Ren speak up, asking if anybody knew where exactly they were. “You guys stay put, I’ll check out the area. I’ve been meaning to stretch my wings anyway,” and with that, he transformed into a bird and took to the skies before any of them had a chance to protest. 

“Wait! Uncle Qrow! You shouldn’t go alone!” Ruby jumped up from where she sat with the rest of her team calling after him, but to no avail. “He’ll be fine Ruby. He’s the most experienced Huntsman among us, and he has Harbinger with him,” said Blake. “Yeah, but I don’t like the idea of him being by himself… Have you noticed he always looks like he’s reaching for his flask? I mean, I know he always used to do that before, but he’d stopped for a while, and now he does it even more than before. He doesn’t show it, but I know he’s heartbroken over Clover. You all know how he gets. I’ve never seen him happier than he was with Clover, but now...,” said Ruby. “Worry not my friend! I shall go after him and scout with him! I’m the only other one of us that can fly after all,” said Penny, and promptly took off after him. “We all agree with you, but we can’t do anything if he doesn’t want us to. Besides, I’ve been keeping an eye on his emotional state with my semblance. He hasn’t been feeling anything...drastic, that I’ve noticed,” said Ren. He’d long since told his friends about his semblance evolving, but they’d all agreed to keep it a secret from Penny because she wasn’t exactly the best at keeping secrets, and from Qrow since they knew if he knew about it he’d feel like they were invading his privacy. They kind of were, but their desire to keep him safe far surpassed any feelings of guilt, so they decided to stay quiet about it. “Yeah, let’s just give him some space. And once we get to a city, we can make him pancakes! Pancakes always help people feel better!” “I think you’re confusing people with you, Nora,” said Oscar, and they all burst out laughing. 

Jaune had gone a little ways by himself to train for a while, but made sure to stay barely within earshot of the camp in case something happened. He decided to train with Pyrrha’s videos that night. They’d been so busy in Haven, and then in Atlas, especially after getting their licenses, that he hadn’t gotten a chance to watch them for a long time. He’d heard Ruby calling out after her uncle and Penny going after him, and the sudden burst laughter a minute later. After another half hour, he’d decided he’d trained enough and made his way back to camp. He’d just sat down with the rest of Team JNOR when Qrow and Penny returned and revealed that they were surprisingly close to the forest around Beacon Academy. They were about half a day’s walk from the academy, and Vale was on the other side. When they’d left the entire area had been overrun by Grimm and the surrounding cities abandoned. According to Qrow and Penny, some of the smaller surrounding cities had turned into Huntsman outposts and they were trying to slowly take back their lost territory, but Beacon was still entirely devoid of anything but Grimm. Surprisingly, the giant Wyvern Grimm Ruby had petrified during The Fall was still there, still petrified, still terrifying. 

Team MRDR grew silent, staring into the fire. Yang was the first to speak up. “We’ve really gotten a lot stronger since then haven’t we. I mean, remember when we first got to Beacon, Ruby was clinging to me, scared that she didn’t know anybody. Then she knocked over Weiss’s cases full of dust, got lost, and Jaune threw up on her when they met trying to find the orientation ceremony! Hahahaha!” 

The three that were called out turned ruby red, all trying to defend themselves at the same time, while the rest break out in a fit of giggles. “You shouldn’t have left me! I’m your sister!” “Hey! I was a totally different person back then! You can’t judge me for that! Besides, it really could’ve been dangerous if that dust had been damaged!” “Aw, Yang, why’d you have to bring that up! I’d finally forgotten all about that! I really don’t want to go back to being called Vomit Boy…”

“Did all that really happen?” Oscar asked. “What else happened?”  
“Oh yes! Please, share more of your tales with us!” Said Penny, excited.

Nora shouted, “The initiation ceremony was hilarious! All of us launched off the cliff like it was nothing, but Jaune flailed and needed so much help! Haha!” Jaune turned even more red, responding with a, “Why do you guys always have to bring up all my worst moments…” Ruby, however, came to his defense, pointing out that it was Jaune’s plan that allowed them to take down both the Deathstalker and the Nevermore Grimm simultaneously later that same day, to which Jaune gave her a grateful smile. 

Ren then brought up how team RWBY had rearranged their room to be bunk beds, Blake complained about Tai literally mailing them their family dog, Jaune teased Weiss about how uptight she used to be, Yang reminisced about their infamous “girls’ night” at the club, and more. Oscar and Penny soaked up all the joviality like sponges, especially Oscar, who had never gotten a chance to attend a school, let alone a huntsman academy. They even went into great detail about what all of them considered to be their most epic battle to date, the infamous Food Fight! “Team RWBY totally won that battle!” Shouted Yang. “Psh! No way! If Professor Goodwitch hadn’t stepped in and interrupted, Team JNPR totally would’ve won! We were just about to make our comeback, but got interrupted!” Retorted Nora. “Suuuuure you were. And I’m a flying purple platypus,” said Blake with the most dramatic eye roll ever. “Purple platypuses exist?!” Exclaimed Nora, which only led to more laughter, and an explanation from Ren to Nora that they’re not real, and to Penny that she was being sarcastic because she was obviously a cat faunus. “We really have grown a lot since then. I mean, we’re Huntsmen now!” Chimed Ruby. 

“Wow… Beacon sounds like it was amazing… I’ll bet you all had fun all the time. I wish I could’ve gone,” said Oscar. The laughter slowly died down as Jaune quietly said, “Well, it wasn’t ALL fun… Some of us weren’t quite so lucky…” Ren put a hand on his shoulder, and Nora hugged him, while Team RWBY looked at them with sadness in their eyes. _‘I’m sure you remember them mentioning someone named Pyrrha? She was the P in Team JNPR. We, unfortunately, lost her during the Fall of Beacon. I’m afraid it was my fault, although none of them would ever admit to it…,’_ Ozpin told Oscar. _‘I see. I was wondering why their team had four letters but only three people. By the way, where have you been? I thought you’d disappeared again after we left Atlas. You still have some explaining to do, remember?’_ Replied Oscar. _‘Yes, I haven’t forgotten. But for now, let’s let them reminisce a bit longer,’_ said Ozpin, before retreating back into silence. It appeared nobody had noticed that Oscar had momentarily gone silent during his private conversation with Ozpin, as they were still trying to silently comfort Jaune. “You’re talking about Pyrrha, right? Can you tell me about her? You don’t really talk about her much,” Oscar asks, hesitantly. They all look at each other, and then at Jaune. “It’s alright you guys. I’m a big boy. You don’t have to tiptoe around me whenever Pyrrha comes up. We can talk about her,” he says, then, with a sad smile, looks at Oscar, “She was the best.” 

“You guys already know about how I got into Beacon. I used fake transcripts, and pretty much got in with no experience. I didn’t think it would actually work, but when I was accepted, I couldn’t not go! Pyrrha saved me many times during the initiation before we got to the temple. She taught me how to activate my aura, how to land, and other stuff. And classes hadn’t even started yet!” He said with a laugh. “She helped me study, encouraged me when I was feeling down or insecure, trained me, cared about me…even when I was being a jerk… She never gave up on me. Even now she still trains me.” Jaune said, looking down at his scroll and giving it a little squeeze, before looking back up, “She was a true huntress. She was my hero.” As the others smiled, they chimed in with more declaration of how awesome she was, and how she was the nicest, humblest person they’d ever met, as well as more stories about her. And of course, the Food Fight was revisited, but this time with more details. Even Penny joined the story telling when they got to the Vytal Festival! “Do you remember the festival Uncle Qrow! It was so cool that you came to see us!” Shouted Ruby. Qrow chuckled at her with a, “Yeah, I remember kiddo. You all were great, both in and out of the arena, if I remember correctly,” which made Ruby’s eyes sparkle, as the conversation moved on without further input from him. They were all especially in stitches when attack names were brought up. “Do you remember when Jaune just randomly shouted out ‘Flower Power’? We’d never even talked about attack names! It was so weird,” said Nora. “I already told you why I called it that! Ren brings the flower, you bring the power!” “Yeah….. I still say we don’t use that ever again…,” said Ren. “Your attack name with Pyrrha was hilarious though! Arkos! Haha! Pyrrha got so embarrassed in the middle of the battle! Hahaha,” laughed Yang. “Haha! Yeah! It sounded like a couple name more than an attack name,” said Ruby. “Alright, fine, point taken. I think we’ve all grown past needing attack names though,” replied Jaune, “We haven’t used any since then. Real battle experience is amazing. I never would’ve guessed just how different we’d be with real experience back when we were in school.” “That’s true. Out of all of us, I think you’ve improved the most since then though. You were the first to beat a wild Grimm outside of the classroom in the Forest of Forever Fall out of any of us! You even got your semblance during the battle at Haven Academy! And right on time too. You saved us so many times because of that. I wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for you,” Weiss said, appreciatively. The others chimed in agreement, applauding him for all his hard work, which Jaune abashedly denied, instead talking about how he wasn’t all that, and about how much Oscar had grown since they’d met. 

Qrow smiled and laughed quietly from his spot. It’d been a while since he’d seen the kids this relaxed and talking about school, like they would be doing if their schooling hadn’t been cut short the way it was. Even if he felt like he’d lost a part of himself, even he had to admit that seeing them like this brought a glimmer of hope to his life. Even though he thought they’d be better off without them, he knew if Clover was still around, he would’ve insisted that he was wrong and that he stay with them. He was about to reach for the pin again when they heard a rustling in the bushes. All the laughter and merriment instantly ceased as they jumped to their feet and brought their weapons to the ready. After all their time camping and fighting Grimm, they’d gotten into the habit of always having their weapons on them, even in their sleep, in case of an attack, so the motion was, at that point, a reflex, that impressed even the seasoned older huntsman. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the bushes comes a familiar face, Cardin Winchester. As he comes out into the clearing, nobody lowers their guard for a while. Qrow is the first to relax, thinking, ‘Oh, it’s this brat…,’ and sits back down. Penny and Oscar are next, taking their queue from Qrow. Team RWBY is next to put down their weapons, but their faces are stone, eyes staring daggers into him, and they remain standing. Team JNR is different. Jaune, suddenly looking very small, unconsciously jumps behind Ren and Nora, and Ren and Nora concurrently move in front of Jaune, almost as though they’re shielding him from Cardin while also staring daggers into him, and none of them drop their weapons. Qrow can’t help but think if looks could kill, that brat would’ve been dead the instant he walked into their camp. Cardin hadn’t noticed JNR’s actions, but Oscar had, and he found it curious. Why did it look like Jaune, the guy who had amazing battle sense, always had a plan, and has literally helped save hundreds of people, was scared? Why did the others look like they hated this stranger, whom he’d never even heard of before, to the point where it looked like they wanted to beat the living daylights out of him? He knew there had to be some sort of story behind it, but he knew better than to ask in that moment. 

Completely oblivious to the obvious hostility in the group, Cardin introduces himself in his usual self-centered manner, “Hey everybody. The name’s Cardin Winchester. I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. You must be new. You’ve probably heard of me though. I’m a pretty big deal around here. Mind if I join you,” and approaches the fire, not even waiting for an answer. Teams RWBY and JNR look at each other, JNR puts their weapons up, and respond, “I guess you can say we’ve heard of you…,” and furiously look away. The two teams trade glances as if saying, “He doesn’t recognize us. Did he not see the broadcast from Amity? Or did he see it and just forgot?” They circle around the fire and sit opposite him, still partially shielding Jaune from him as he says, “Of course you have! I’m a huntsman afterall! Hahaha!” To which Ren responds, “Oh, you are? You look very young to already have your huntsman license,” to which Nora and Ruby stifle a giggle. They knew there was no way he’d already have his license. Heck, they only reason they had theirs is because General Ironwood had made an exception for them based on his personal knowledge of their experiences, skill, and a good word in from a huntsman he respected (thank you Uncle Qrow!). “Well, no, I don’t officially have a license, but with this area being the total mess that it is, who’s checking? I’m doing the same work, except I don’t have anybody managing me. It’s a win-win!” and Cardin proceeds to tell them about the little progress that’s been made since the Fall, which did interest them initially, but as he droned on and on, he began to bore them. As Cardin continued his monolog, the others began moving around and whispering to each other, and Cardin slowly started recognizing them. “Wait a second… Aren’t you that loser Team RWBY from Beacon?” When they all went quiet and stared at him again, he took it as a sign to continue, “You are, aren’t you! Wow! I thought you were all dead or something! I didn’t see you at the Fall, I figured you losers had all run off somewhere. Ha!” Once again, oblivious to the glares he was getting from RWBY and JNR, he went even further, much to Oscar’s quickly increasing shock. “Hold on, if you’re Team RWBY, then is this JNPR?! Well, I guess not JNPR anymore since that annoying Pyrrha is gone.” At this, Jaune temporarily forgot his fear of Cardin and came forward, getting in his face, “Don’t you dare talk about Pyrrha that way! You don’t get to talk about her!” 

Surprised, Cardin pulls Jaune in by the neck to a one-armed side hug, holding him in place, and with a wicked smile says, “Jaunie-boy! Is that you? I can’t believe you’re still alive! I really thought you’d be the first to go, but you really proved me wrong didn’t you? I’ll bet these guys have been protecting you all this time, huh? So what were you guys talking about before I came? Here’s what I’ve been doing.” Without letting Jaune go, he begins bragging about how he’s undefeated so far, having fought about ten Ursa, five Beowolves, a couple of Deathstalkers, lots of Beetles, and other smaller Grimm that, when compared to the Apathy, Nuckelavee, and other Grimm they’ve faced, were nothing. Oscar couldn’t help thinking, _‘What’s with this guy? He’s so self-centered and he has no reason to be. Why is Jaune so scared of this guy, and why doesn’t he get out of that hold?’_ After about ten minutes of bragging, he notices that his audience is thoroughly unimpressed. The final nail in the bragging coffin is when Penny innocently says with a big smile, “Oh how nice! It’s very good of you to fight the smaller Grimm for so long. We’ve been so busy fighting Salem and her giant Grimm, we don’t always get around to all the smaller ones!” Red in the face, Cardin squeezes Jaune a little harder, which makes him cough a bit, and says through gritted teeth, “You don’t say? Well, I’m sure Jaunie-boy here was able to help, weren’t you!” Cardin smacked him hard on the chest a couple of times, as the others glared at him. 

Oscar leaned over to Ruby and whispered, as they watched Jaune weakly try to get out of his grip, “Why do I get the feeling that ‘Jaunie-boy’ isn’t said as a term of endearment…” “Because it’s not,” replied Ruby. “Why does Jaune let himself get treated like that? Aren’t we going to help?” Nora responded this time, her voice dripping with a hostility he’d never heard from her before, with a, “Oh, I’m sure The Great Cardin will fill you in all on his own. And it’s not that we don’t want to help him, but he’ll never grow past him if he doesn’t do something himself.” As Oscar looked around at the familiar faces around him, he could tell, they all agreed and were ready to jump to Jaune’s defense if he needed it, but were sitting tight in spite of themselves so that Jaune could have the chance to help himself. _‘I’ve never seen them so tense around anyone not involved with Salem. What exactly happened between them to get them like this?’_ Oscar, unfortunately, did not have to wait long for his answer. Cardin began regaling them with memories they all would rather have remained in the past. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how great of friends we were! I kept your secret after you snuck into Beacon after all! Oops, did your friends know about it? You know you really shouldn’t keep secrets from your friends,” he chided after seeing the looks of shock all around, and misreading the source of it. He continued on with reminding them of how Jaune followed him around and did everything for him and the rest of Team CRDL, and all the pranks they played on him. “Then again, you never were the smartest guy. You never quite knew when you were out matched, and you kept hanging around with those faunus,” he said, looking right at Blake with a smirk, her ears in full view, not having been covered by a bow since the Fall. “Well, I have to admit that you do go well together, losers and animals. First there’s little miss gloomy over there, and of course the rabbit,”  
(somewhere in Shade Academy, Velvet sneezes. “You alright, V? Not getting sick on us are you?” asks Coco. “Yeah, that was weird.” “Make sure you don’t catch a cold, we have training to do,” said Yatsuhashi.)  
“and you never exactly made the best choices, like when you tried to humiliate me in front of the class.” All of Team RWBY had been clutching at Blake in support, but at that last comment, everybody looked confused. Jaune meekly asked, “When was that? I don’t remember doing anything like that…,” and flinched when Cardin, at last, turned to him with a smirk. Team JNR flinched, and Oscar found himself feeling an inexplicable twinge of anger. Where was this much fury coming from? Was it sympathy because he started even later than Jaune, but had such a different experience because he was surrounded by such supportive people like Team MRDR? Was it Ozpin? Was he listening to this conversation? He almost never came out anymore, so he couldn’t feel him like before, but aside from those things, there was no explanation for why he felt so strongly like that after hearing all he’d heard. Now their initial reactions made sense. _‘I guess bullies from your past, from a time when you were weak and couldn’t fight back yet, still have that effect on a person even after friends and life have helped you not only to heal but get stronger both on your own and as part of a ride-or-die team,’_ he thought. Feigning distress, Cardin exclaimed, “You don’t? I’m hurt Jaunie-boy! But hey, I’ve grown, and decided to be the bigger person and forgive you, even if you don’t apologize for attacking me with a Grimm.” At this, everybody’s jaws dropped. Teams RWBY and JNR knew exactly the event he was talking about, and it didn’t go in any way like Cardin was hinting at. He was just twisting it to make Jaune look bad in front of the people he thought didn’t know the story! 

Their momentary shocked silence gave him an opening to change the subject before they protested, and he began bragging about his weapon, the Executioner. Penny, easily fascinated by any weapon, listened intently, but Oscar rolled his eyes, _‘Of course that’s what he named his weapon…’_ He’d recently made new upgrades to his mace, adding a retractable chain to it so he could extend his battering range, along with the fire dust crystal in the center. Qrow was easily the first to get annoyed, interrupting Cardin’s dissertation on his upgrades, _‘What’s he so proud about? That mace doesn’t even have a gun, so dumb…,’_ with a, “Now I remember you. You’re that brat whose ass I saved by accident during the Fall of Beacon while I was busy breaking Jimmy’s robot soldiers. You were having a hard time fighting even one of those things. Don’t see why though, they weren’t all that strong. Every one of these kids here could take on several of them with one hand tied, and blindfolded. Hell, they almost did in Atlas a while back,” in his usual bored and annoyed voice he uses when he’s trying to shut somebody up for good. Cardin turned red from ear to ear and looked as if he’d just been punched in the gut, repeatedly, Ruby was trying and failing to stifle giggles, Weiss and Blake also tried and failed to hide their smiles, Ren managed to stay stoic as always, Nora and Yang were openly laughing, Penny started raving in agreement about how strong her friends had gotten even though nobody was really listening, and Oscar and Jaune stared slack-jawed but admiringly at Qrow. With one comment he’d managed to not only shut Cardin up and put him in his place, but also show off how strong they had all gotten. Suddenly, the air around the group got lighter, but Jaune still remained firmly in Cardin’s grip, although it had slackened enough for him to be able to breathe comfortably again. 

After about a minute of Team MRDR laughing, Qrow smirking ( _‘What’s wrong kid? Forget how to speak too, in addition to not being able to fight?’_ ), and Cardin sputtering trying to find a response to Qrow’s original comment, he was able to compose himself to regain human speech. Just as he was about to retort, a huge crashing noise was heard nearby! All of Team MRDR was at the ready in an instant, except for Jaune, who was still locked in a choke hold by Cardin, and of course, Cardin himself, who’d naively put down his weapon upon entering the camp and relaxing. While he was shocked at how fast they all were, he was still too far gone from Qrow’s comment to be impressed. Seconds later, an Alpha Beowolf came crashing into the camp! “A Beowolf!” Shouted Ruby. “That’s bigger than any Beowolf I’ve ever seen,” said Nora. “It must be an Alpha! Possibly mutated! Otherwise, how would it have gotten so huge,” shouted Weiss as she jumped out of the way of a swiping arm. Cardin, watching Team MRDR quickly regroup while expertly dodging the swings from the Alpha, snaps, shoving Jaune away from him and reaching for his weapon. “Stay back, I’ve got this. No way do I believe that you guys did all you say you did,” he declares, and stares at Qrow, _‘I’ll show you who’s weak. You might’ve been confident against robots, but you’re probably too scared to do anything right now against this Grimm since you haven’t even moved from your spot,’_ and immediately jumps at the giant Grimm. Qrow leans back against the nearest tree, weapon still at the ready in case he needs to jump in, smirks again, _‘Let’s see if this kid’s even half as good as he says he is.’_

“No! Wait, Cardin! You can’t just jump in without a plan!” Calls Jaune, as he catches his weapon that Ren tosses to him. “How did we miss such a giant Grimm being nearby? How did we not notice one getting close? There weren’t any in the immediate area when you scouted around earlier, were there Uncle Qrow?” Asked Yang. “Two guess that it’s somehow Cardin’s fault,” says Nora under her breath. “It must’ve been attracted by our emotions, auras, and the relics,” said Blake, as they all look toward their packs where they’ve safely hidden the relics. “Well, as much as we don’t like him, we can’t just leave him to fight this Grimm alone. He’ll be slaughtered, and we need as many huntsmen, and I suppose wannabe huntsmen, as we can get right now. Salem is only getting stronger, and her army getting bigger. We need that too. Plus, I don’t know about you guys, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep later knowing we didn’t help someone when we could, even if that someone is a jerk,” states Jaune, with not a bit of irony. “It would be nice to see the look on his face when he realizes he needed the ‘losers’ he used to pick on to save him, again. Alright team leader, what do you want to do then? What’s the plan?” Jaune, surprised at Ren’s question, looks up at everyone gathered around him. With everyone’s silent encouragement, and assurance that whatever he wants to do they’ll follow, he begins explaining the plan. “Okay, it doesn’t look like its pack is with it, but we can’t know for sure right now, so we need to end this fast. Here’s what we’ll do...” He assigns roles, Ren, Yang and Blake are to distract it with small quick shots, Weiss supports with her glyphs, Penny just needs to make sure Cardin doesn’t get himself killed, he and Ruby will make sure it loses its footing, while Nora deals the final big blow. “We only get one shot at this guys. If we learned anything from the Battle at Beacon, it’s that these particular Grimm aren’t dumb, and if Atlas taught us anything, they’re learning. Let’s not give it that chance.” “Jaune, what should I do,” asks Oscar. “You take care of the relics,” Jaune replies, then whispers so Qrow is sure not to hear, “Qrow seems to be enjoying the show right now, and he hasn’t had much to smile about lately, so let’s not take that away from him with work right now, yeah?” They both glance at Qrow, who does indeed have an amused smile on his shadowed face, albeit a small one, and they agree. 

Team MRDR jumps into action, and the battle is over after literally a couple of minutes of bodies flying, blades swinging, bullets soaring, and hammers falling. Penny, who’d gotten Cardin out of the way almost immediately, set him down after the fighting was over. Cardin, who’d been loud and chatty only minutes before, was now quiet, and very much worse for wear after running in to fight the Grimm alone and nearly getting killed. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. The brat losers he’d looked down on only moments ago, had saved him. He’d needed THEM of all people, to help him, and they did without him even needing to ask. And they made it look so EASY! Off a short distance away, he could hear the others celebrating their victory and discussing what they’d done. “Ruby, that was a nice swing! You’re getting even better with that scythe!” “Thanks Blake! Your copies are so awesome! They’re looking more and more realistic every time!” “Weiss, perfect glyph placement, as usual. Not only was I able to jump all I wanted, but you caged that Beowolf in too! Made the rest of our jobs easier.” “No problem Yang. I would’ve liked to get some more practice in with my summons, but space was limited. Next time I want to be able to get some hits in, got it Jaune?” “Haha! Sure thing. But hopefully we don’t run into another one that big any time soon. Right, Nora?” “What’re you talking about? We need the practice! It’s not like we have a nice big fancy training facility anymore like in Atlas. I say bring ‘em on!” As Nora laughs, the other groan, and they walk into the camp to a happy Penny, a proud Qrow and Oscar, and a dumbfounded Cardin. _‘How had they not even broken a sweat doing all of that?! They couldn’t have gotten that good in such a short time! Wait, did they say Atlas? Wasn’t there a huge battle there just a few weeks ago? Were they there? What exactly have they been up to?’_ “Good job kids. Glad to see you’re putting those licenses to good use. I wasn’t able to see you in action back in Atlas, but this looks like it was a good warm up,” said Qrow from the shadows, making Cardin flinch. “You guys ALL have your licenses?! You’re official Huntsmen?! How?!” Cardin wasn’t necessarily dumb, but the last five minutes were a little too much for his brain to keep up with. “Well, not Oscar over there, but yeah. General Ironwood gave us official licenses a few months back when we arrived in Atlas. Said something about us having proved ourselves worthy of them even without having finished our academy training. We’re training him up though, so hopefully once we get to Shade Academy he can join us in official license-dom,” giggled Nora, back to her bubbly self after that quick work out. He suddenly felt so small, kneeling on the ground with all of them standing around him. Jaune crouched down in front of him and brought his hand forward, and Cardin flinched again, ready for the punch in the face he was sure was coming. That’s what he would’ve done anyway. “You know that wasn’t very smart,” Jaune told him, and Cardin suddenly flashed back to the Forest of Forever Fall when Jaune stood up to him and he told him that exact same thing. Except, when Jaune said it, it had no sense of malice to it. Seeing a hand offered to him, an embarrassed Cardin brushes it away, “I had it covered…,” with his obviously hurt pride, and no bite to his words, he couldn’t meet any of their eyes and got up on his own. “No you didn’t, but don’t worry, your secret’s safe with us,” says Ren from the back of the group. Again, Cardin remembered giving Jaune that exact same line, but unlike when Jaune spoke, Ren, the usually quiet boy, had some threat to him. 

Oscar looked on at the scene in front of him, and couldn’t help but feel an immense amount of pride for his friends. They were more than just classmates, they were a family. His family. They’d grown so much since he’d met them, not only as huntsmen, but as people, and it seems they’d grown even more than he knew even before meeting him. They instinctively knew when to defend each other, and when to let them stand on their own. He could swear he felt some pride from Ozpin too, although he remained silent. 

Qrow touched the pin in his inner breast pocket after putting Harbinger away, and smiled on the group of kids he travelled with. Watching them back each other up, even silently, made him happy that they’d never be alone. It gave him hope, despite himself, that maybe he wouldn’t alway be alone too. Ever since Clover, he’d been avoiding them as much as he could, even going so far as to turn into a bird and flying off alone more often than technically necessary using “scouting” as an excuse (even if Penny did end up flying after him at Ruby’s request about half the time) because his feelings numbed as a bird, but he was proud of them, and having their attention and loyalty forced on him for so long now, he could never even think of abandoning them now. Unless they wanted him to leave, he’d stick around, you know, to make sure they were safe. They were still kids after all, even if they were officially licensed huntsmen, and already stronger than many huntsmen he’d known in the past. They’d needed to be to make it as far as they have. _‘I think I’m going to be okay, Lucky Charm. Maybe some of your Luck is in your pin after all,’_ he thought with a smile. 

Cardin left their camp, mumbling something about needing to get back to some people since he had been out scouting or some nonsense, and peace returned to Team MRDR. “Well, I’ll bet that was the best dessert he’s had in a while!” Exclaimed Nora, thoroughly confusing everybody there. “What do you mean? We don’t even have any for ourselves? How could we have given Cardin any?” Questioned Weiss. With a giant grin on her face, and a knowing glance from Ren (she swears, he can read her mind sometimes), she shouts, “Of course we did! 10 nice BIG slices of Humble Pie! Raw, obviously. It’s gross if it’s cooked,” and drops to the floor laughing at her own joke. As the others joined her in a dog pile of laughter and comments, like, “That wasn’t funny!” and “That joke was so lame!” Jaune made his way over to Qrow. “Hey, Qrow? Thanks, for earlier. What you said. I know the others were trying to hold back so I could do something about him myself, but I don’t think I would’ve done anything if you hadn’t spoken up.” Attempting to hide his embarrassment with a nonchalant attitude, he responds, “No problem kid. I didn’t really do that for you though. He had it coming with him annoying me. The guy needed to be knocked down a few pegs. Besides, I just shut him up for a few seconds. You kids did all the hard work. I’d bet my...well, I’d bet that shut him up for good.” _‘I almost bet his…,’_ and touched his breast pocket again. He’s been doing that a lot tonight. Bashfully, because he knew what Qrow was saying, Jaune said, “Well, regardless, thanks,” and then headed back to the group. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the merriment started dying down, and Penny had left for her turn on watch, Jaune whispered to the rest of the group, “I don’t think that’s a flask in his pocket. Just a few minutes ago, I went to thank him for what he said earlier, and he almost bet something that was in there. If it was his flask, I don’t think he would’ve hesitated since he can just get a new one later. I think it’s something more...precious, I guess. I wonder what it could be…” They all glanced in the direction of the sleeping Qrow, faces full of gentle smiles. If he’d found something he cared about more than his flask, which Yang and Ruby’s father had given him as a gift years before, enough to keep it there, and not risk betting it, even as a joke, whatever it was, they were glad he’d found it. It gave them hope that he’d be okay even without Clover by his side. With that thought, for once, not thinking about their mission, or getting to Vacuo, the relic and maidens, they drifted off to a deep and restful sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you again for reading! This one-shot story ended up being waaaaaaay longer than I initially planned, but once I started writing, I couldn't really stop, so it ended up like this. Haha!  
> Please let me know what you think in the comments so I can improve for my next fic, whenever that is! ^^


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